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This is the 26th month into our debt free journey. We’ve paid $102,085 so far with $25,144 remaining. It still boggles my mind that we’ve managed to pay off over $100,000 in just 2 years, crazy!
Also can’t believe that it’s November already, what a year 2020 has been.
Really hope everyone reading this is staying safe out there.
The holidays this year definitely won’t be the same but as long as everyone is careful, that’s the most important part.
Holidays
With all the COVID cases out there, I’m sure many families are not going all out this year. If that’s you then make the most out of it by saving money. We all know how expensive it can get hosting Thanksgiving dinners and parties.
Hopefully by this time next year, things will settle down and resort to going back to normal once again.
If you like to plan holiday dinners and parties then definitely start saving money now so you can do it big next year. You don’t have to save much each month.
For example, create a fund for your ‘Holiday party / dinner’. You can set aside $50 a month starting this month and by next year you’ll have $600 left to spend to host something very nice during the holidays. That way, you’ll be financially prepared for holiday events next year.
Student Loans
This month I’ve paid $1,000 towards my student loan bringing the balance down to $17,000. I plan on continuing to apply payments to bring the balance down to $10,000 then I’ll hold off until there’s additional news on what the Biden administration plans to do for federally held student loans.
If you hold federal student loans, currently there should be a pause on your payments. The government may also prolong this pause for a while, it’s just a waiting game for now.
If you don’t have any savings, now is a good time to stack up some savings while you can.
Technically, you don’t have to make any payments towards student loans. With the extra money you may have, you can either use it towards paying down other debt or savings. Keep in mind that it’s important to save some money for student loan payments if the pause doesn’t end up getting extended.
For now, there’s high hopes that $10,000 of student loan debt will be wiped out for everyone. But we’ll have to wait and see.
Free Thanksgiving Dinner From Ibotta
Did you know Ibotta is giving away a free Thanksgiving dinner from Walmart?
This offer lasts until November 25th 2020.
What you can do is:
Get the Ibotta app
Redeem the free offers pictured above
Scan your receipt
Get full cash back for those items
I use Ibotta when I shop for groceries on the regular. It’s super easy to get cash back for food items. First I would add grocery items to my list on Ibotta, purchase the items, scan my receipt, and get cash back right away.
If you do a lot of grocery shopping, Ibotta’s going to save you a lot of money over time.
Sign up to Ibotta using code YDIGCFJ and get your $20 welcome bonus
Takeaway
The holidays sure aren’t the same this year. Hopefully you all still had a wonderful and safe Thanksgiving with your closest loved ones.
Start preparing to save some money each month for next year’s holidays. Even if it’s $20 a month, that’s still something that can add up for you to spend towards holiday dinner’s and parties in 2021.
Let’s all keep an eye out on what’s going to happen with student loan payment pause and debt elimination, time will only tell. Hope we can all get $10,000 or more knocked off our federal student loans, how great is that going to be?!
Lastly, keep your cash back at the grocery store going with Ibotta. You can eventually make enough back for a free week’s worth of groceries or more.
We partner with some awesome companies that offer products which can help our readers. If you make a purchase through one of our partner links, we may receive a commission at absolutely no additional cost to you! Please see my Policy & Disclosure page for full details.
It’s now month 25 into our debt free journey and still can’t believe we’ve paid off $101,059 so far. Here’s a chart to get a good look at our progress so far.
Just goes to show you that paying off debt happens over time.
Little by little, day by day, any small progress will get you closer to your goal.
At the end of each month, if you get any money left over from budgeting or found money from saving, throw it at debt. That’s how you can make progress towards knocking out debt.
If you’re looking to get a kick start for your own debt journey start off by grabbing a debt thermometer and enroll in the free 5-day Debt Free Bootcamp below.
Have Fun During Your Debt Payoff Journey
Covid-19 has really put a damper on travel this year.
Safety is a real concern and there’s no way we wanted to travel outside the country while this pandemic was going around.
Before this year is up we still wanted to do some fun things while staying safe.
Last month, we went to Six Flags and were pleasantly surprised how they kept up with social distancing allowing people to have fun safely.
This month we decided to go back for a nice little weekend getaway again.
If you’re starting your own debt free journey, make sure that you’re still setting some room for fun. It’s important to do that because you don’t want to sacrifice the things you love to do while getting out of debt.
Becoming debt free doesn’t have to be a miserable process full of giving up on the things you love to do.
Squeeze in some fun here and there without having to break the bank doing so.
Let’s find some ways for you to have fun and pay off debt at the same time.
Use Travel Reward Cards
Did you know that credit cards will reward you with bonus points that can cover your travel and trips?
There’s a lot of credit cards out there that are currently offering mega points for using their cards.
This is how my husband and I travel for free during out debt free journey.
This doesn’t mean going out and applying for tons of travel cards, you’ve got to figure out how to best get the most out of these cards without going further into debt.
We’ve learned the hard way when it came to credit cards. Before our debt free journey, we had 8 credit cards with over $33,000 on them.
We knocked it all out and now use 1 single travel rewards credit card at a time, paying off the balance in full each month.
What I’m suggesting is, use only 1 single travel rewards card and use it for all your monthly expenses. Pay off the balance in full every month. This will help your credit score and allow you to get those promotional bonus points.
At the same time, if you have other credit cards, pay minimum payments on the rest and work your way towards knocking them out of your life as you move forward in your own debt journey.
This method has helped us tremendously with finally learning to use credit cards properly and reaping all the benefits credit cards has to offer.
Use Rakuten & Orbitz
Before you book any trip, always check Rakuten first to see if there’s any cash back offers before booking.
Rakuten is one of my fav sites when it comes to getting cash back online.
Click on the store link where it sends you directly to the online retailer
Or simply download the Rakuten Chrome Extension which will easily show you right away how much money you can get back when shopping online
On the backend, Rakuten will get you money back for your purchase
Once you reach $5, get your money via PayPal or a check mailed to you
So far I’ve made $51.46 + another $50 on my other Rakuten account that gives me a total of $101.46. Over $100 in cash back from shopping online, money that would’ve been lost if I didn’t use Rakuten.
It’s definitely worth checking out so you don’t miss out on any cash back from shopping online.
Sign up is free and my special link here will get you $40 for free when you spend $40 (It’s like getting $40 for free!) Rakuten won’t disappoint, check them out.
This is a limited promotion Rakuten is offering, get it before they take it way!
Orbitz
Orbitz is one of my go-to travel sites. They always seem to have the best prices when it comes to travel + hotels.
Another thing I like about Orbitz is that they give cash back in the form of something called Orbucks.
Say for instance you booked a hotel through Orbitz at $100, you’ll earn 4% back which gives you $4. With the Orbucks, you can apply it towards your next booking with Orbitz.
Don’t knock these cash back offers guys, it may not seem like a lot but over time they definitely add up. Next thing you know, you can have enough to pay for your next trip.
For this recent trip to Six Flags, I received $6.23 cash back from Rakuten and $5.34 from Orbitz, which gives me a total of $11.57.
I love getting money back don’t you? Try Rakuten and Orbitz out before you book your next travel.
Earn Free Money Playing Games
Did you know you could actually get paid to play games on your phone / ipad?
That’s how I earn a bit of side money whenever I get some free time at night watching TV.
Swagbucks is where you want to go to get paid to play games on your phone or ipad. Swagbucks also rewards you for surveys, polls, questionnaires, trying apps, watching videos, shopping online, submitting receipts, and more.
However, I mostly use Swagbucks to pay me to play video games which is so easy and awesome.
How to get paid playing games with Swagbucks:
Sign up for Swagbucks
Find a game listed you would like to try
Get the downloadable link to the game via your e-mail
Make sure to fulfill the Swagbucks rules to redeem your points (example: reach level 15)
Play the game and get rewarded with Swagbucks
It’s super simple and legit guys!
So far I’ve received 14,010 SB points which is $140.10 mainly from playing games on my phone.
During your spare time, earn some side money playing games, trying apps, filling out surveys and more on Swagbucks.
Should You Still Make Payments Towards Student Loans?
So, I currently have only 2 remaining debts. 1 is my student loan and the other is a personal loan from family.
At the moment federal student loan payments should be suspended for everyone and there’s no interest accruing, which is awesome for now.
This is totally up to you whether or not you would like to continue making payments.
I am still making payments towards my student loans for 2 reasons.
First reason is that any payments made during this time goes STRAIGHT to principle. This basically means that your money goes a lot further to knock out this debt.
If there was interest involved, any payment you make will get split going towards interest and principle which ultimately slightly weakens how far your money goes towards knocking out this debt.
Second reason I’m still making payments is that my current balance is slightly over $17K. I’m aiming to get it down to at least $10K.
If you have federal student loans $10K and under, it may not be a bad idea to hold off on making payments until this process goes through.
Since student loan payments are on hold, this may also be a good time to build your savings if you need to.
Nothing is written in stone yet so we’ll have to wait a few months before we see any promise upheld. Just make sure to save some money to cover student loan payments if they don’t extend the pause on payments or if loan forgiveness doesn’t ever go through.
Takeaway
So remember guys, it’s important to set some time to have fun in your life even though you’re in the process of paying off debt. Also, keep in mind that you can find ways to travel for free and get the most bang out of your buck by using the right travel rewards,Rakuten, and Orbitz.
Let’s also hope that $10,000 worth of federal student loans will be wiped out, fingers crossed!
See you all next month!
By the way.. If you haven’t started your own debt free journey, start today! Try out my free 5-day Debt Free Bootcamp that’ll give you some awesome tips to help you take control of your money and get debt free!
